- 4 hours ago
Deep in the frozen wilderness of Siberia, an abandoned Soviet radio tower begins transmitting impossible messages. Voices of missing people echo through the static, warning of something lurking beyond the trees. As a communications technician investigates the mysterious signals, he uncovers a terrifying secret buried beneath the snow, one that should never have been heard.
A chilling tale of isolation, lost transmissions, and an ancient presence listening from the darkness.
š§ Listen with the lights off... if you dare.
A chilling tale of isolation, lost transmissions, and an ancient presence listening from the darkness.
š§ Listen with the lights off... if you dare.
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FunTranscript
00:00The radio tower in Siberia. The first voice I heard belonged to a dead man. At least that is what
00:08the police reports it. I didn't know that at that time. All I knew was that I was alone in
00:15the Siberian wilderness.
00:16Nearly 80 miles from the nearest settlement and someone was calling for help through a radio system that hadn't worked
00:25properly in over 20 years. The transmission began at 2.13 in the morning. A burst of static. Then a
00:35man's voice, weak, panicked, breathing hard.
00:39Can anyone hear me? The signal crackled. I have been walking for hours. A pause. Heavy breathing. Then the words
00:49that still haunt me. Something is following me through the histories. The transmission ended abruptly.
00:57And three days later, I learned that the voice belonged to a man who had disappeared in 1997.
01:05My name is Anton Volkov. For nearly a decade, I worked as a communication technician maintaining remote radio-to-radio
01:14structure across Nagorno-Russia.
01:16Most assignments were routine. Repair a damaged antenna. Replace equipments. Inspect weather station.
01:24The work was lonely. The work was lonely. But I enjoyed it. I liked the silence. At least I thought
01:30I did.
01:32The assignment that changed everything arrived in January in 2021. A government communication agency reported unusual activity at an abandoned
01:42Soviet-era radio tower deep in Eastern Siberia.
01:45The facility had officially been discommissioned in the late 1980s. No staff, no power, no operational equipment.
01:54Yet nearby monitoring station occasionally detected weak transmission originating from its frequency range.
02:02Most engineers assumed atmospheric interference. Equipment ghost. Random noise.
02:09My job was simple. Travel to the site. Inspect the tower. Determine whether any hardware remained functional.
02:16Then file a report. Nothing unusual. Nothing dangerous. At least on paper.
02:24The tower stood in one of the most isolated places I have ever visited. An endless expanse of the frozen
02:31forest.
02:33Thousands of square miles of quiet numbness. No roads. No villages. No cell service. Nothing.
02:40A helicopter dropped me off shortly before sunset. The pilot helped unload my supplies.
02:45Then he glanced toward the tower. His exploration changed slightly.
02:51You staying overnight? I nodded. Three days. The pilot hesitated.
02:58Then shrugged. Keep the radio on. Why? He looked away. Just keep it on.
03:05Before I could ask more questions, he climbed back into the helicopter. Minutes later, I was alone.
03:11Completely alone, the silence felt enormous. The tower itself was enormous.
03:18A rustling steel structure rising nearly 400 feet above the forest.
03:24The attached operation building looked abundant. Broken windows, peeling paint, snow piled against the walls.
03:32Yet something immediately felt wrong.
03:34There were footprints. Fresh footprints. Dozens of them. Leading toward the building. None leading away.
03:44I stared at them for a long moment. The snow had fallen heavily during the previous night.
03:51Those tracks could have been more than a day old.
03:56Someone had visited recently. Maybe hunters. Maybe trespassers.
04:01I told myself not to overthink it. But a feeling of an ease settled over me. Anyway.
04:09Inside the building smelled of rust and wool dust. Most equipment had been stripped decades earlier.
04:16Empty racks lined the walls. Broken, controlled panels sat beneath layers of cream.
04:22Yet one room stood out. The communications room.
04:25Unlike the rest of the facility. It appeared decently disturbed.
04:30Dust had been cleared from several surfaces.
04:34A chair set pulled away from a desk.
04:38And an ancient radio console showed signs of recent use.
04:42That made no sense.
04:44The system had no power source.
04:46No generators.
04:47No batteries. Nothing.
04:48Yet when I touched the equipment.
04:51It felt warm.
04:53Not hot.
04:54Warm.
04:55As though someone had been operating it shortly before my arrival.
04:59A cold sensation crawled up my spine.
05:03I checked the entire building.
05:05No people. No animals.
05:07No signs of occupations.
05:09Nothing.
05:10Still I couldn't shake the feeling that someone had left only moments earlier.
05:16Night arrived quickly.
05:17The temperature dropped below minus 30 degrees Celsius.
05:22Outside the forest vanished into darkness.
05:25I prepared dinner.
05:27Reviewed equipment logs.
05:30Tried distracting myself.
05:32Around midnight the radio activated.
05:34By itself.
05:35A sudden burst of static filled the room.
05:38I nearly jumped out of my chair.
05:41The equipment should not have worked.
05:44There was no power.
05:45No functioning transmitter.
05:47Nothing.
05:48Yet static continued hissing through the speakers.
05:52Then came the voice.
05:53A man.
05:54Breathing heavily.
05:56Running.
05:57Branches snapping somewhere nearby.
06:00Can anyone hear me?
06:02I froze.
06:03The voice sounded terrified.
06:06Not staged.
06:07Not distorted.
06:08Terrified.
06:09Please.
06:10More heavy breathing.
06:12I think it is still behind me.
06:15Static searched.
06:16Then silence.
06:17For several seconds I simply stared at the radio.
06:21Trying to understand what I had heard.
06:24The transmission returned.
06:26This time weaker.
06:28Further away.
06:29I can hear it working.
06:31A pause.
06:33Then it's copying me.
06:34The signal died.
06:36The room fell silent.
06:38And I looked at the radio.
06:40The radio looked back.
06:43Or at least that how it felt.
06:47Like something had just used it to reach me.
06:50Something that should not have been able to.
06:53I barely slept.
06:55Every creek of the building sounded louder than it should have.
06:59Every guest offering felt deliberate.
07:02Around dawn I checked the exterior of the facility.
07:06The footprints from yesterday remained.
07:09But now there were new ones.
07:13Fresh tracks circling the building.
07:15Dozens.
07:15Perhaps hundreds.
07:17As though someone had spent the entire night walking around the tower.
07:21Round the round.
07:23Never approaching the door.
07:25Never leaving.
07:27Just circling.
07:28Watching.
07:29Waiting.
07:30And among those tracks I noticed something else.
07:34A second set.
07:35Bare feet.
07:36In the snow.
07:37Mice from civilization in temperature.
07:40Cold enough to kill a person within minutes.
07:43The footprints continued into the forest.
07:45And disappeared between the trees.
07:48That should have been the moment I requested immediate extraction.
07:53Instead I made the mistake that changed everything.
07:56I followed them.
07:58And deep within the frozen forest.
08:00I found a place that was not Marland anymore.
08:04A place that should never have existed.
08:06A clearing.
08:07Filled with radio towers.
08:10Dozens of them.
08:11Hidden among the trees.
08:12And every single one was pointing directly at the abandoned Soviet station.
08:17The same static were.
08:20At exactly 2.13 every morning.
08:22The dead began calling for help.
08:25For a long time.
08:27I simply stood there staring at the clearing.
08:30The forest around me was silent.
08:33Not normal silence.
08:35Not the quiet that comes with the snowfall.
08:38This felt different.
08:40Heavy.
08:41Oppressive.
08:42As if the entire wilderness were holding its breath.
08:46The tower stretched between the trees like a rusted skeleton.
08:50Some stood 30 feet tall.
08:53Others were little more than twisted metal frames.
08:56Most looked decades old, abandoned, forgotten.
08:59Yet something immediately stood out.
09:02Cables.
09:03Fresh cables.
09:04Black insulated wiring ran across the stream.
09:07Connecting tower to tower before disappearing beneath the forest floor.
09:12Someone had been maintaining this place.
09:15Recently.
09:16Very recently.
09:17A cold feeling settled in my stomach.
09:20Because.
09:21According to every map and government document.
09:23I had reviewed.
09:24This clearing did not exist.
09:27I followed the cables deeper into the forest.
09:30After several minutes.
09:31They led me to a small concrete structure buried beneath this ground.
09:35At first I glanced at assembled an old utility bunker.
09:39A heavy steel door stood partially open.
09:43A rust covered most of its surface.
09:46The lock had long since been removed.
09:49I hesitated.
09:51Every instinct told me to leave.
09:53Instead I stepped inside.
09:55The air smelled stale, old.
09:58Like something sealed away for decades.
10:00A narrow staircase descended underground.
10:03My fleshlight illuminated faded Soviet markings on the walls.
10:08Most had become unbearable.
10:11Unreadable.
10:13But one world remained visible.
10:15Three into zero.
10:16Equip.
10:17The bunker extended farther than I expected.
10:21Several rooms contained equipment.
10:23Most of it destroyed.
10:25Broken monitors.
10:27Rotting cables.
10:28Corroded electronics.
10:29Then I found the records room.
10:33Metal filling cabinets lined the wall.
10:36Hundreds of the folders remained stacked inside.
10:39Many had deteriorated beyond recognition.
10:41Others remained surprisingly intact.
10:44One file immediately caught my attention.
10:47Project ECO.
10:49Classified 1988.
10:52My hand shook slightly as I opened it.
10:56The document inside described a communication experiment.
11:00At least that was the official explanation.
11:03The Soviet military had apparently attempted to develop a long-range transmission system cable
11:09of penetrating remote regions without conventional infrastructure.
11:14The technology relied on atmospheric reflection.
11:18Radio was manipulation.
11:20Advanced signal processing.
11:22Nothing unusual.
11:23Until I reached the final pages.
11:26That's where the languages changed.
11:28Technical reports gave way to handwritten notes.
11:31Observations.
11:32Warnings.
11:33Statements that made no sense.
11:36One note read.
11:38The system no longer requires a transmitter.
11:41Another.
11:42Signals are being received from unknown origins.
11:46And finally.
11:47The voices appear aware of the operators.
11:50I stated those words.
11:51Aware.
11:52Not recorded.
11:54Not tripled.
11:55Aware.
11:55Something crashed somewhere above me.
11:58The sound echoed through the bunker.
12:00I nearly dropped the folder.
12:02For several seconds I remained frozen, listening with him.
12:06Then another sound.
12:07A footstep.
12:09Directly above the ceiling.
12:11Slow.
12:11Heavy.
12:12Deliberate.
12:12Someone was walking across the snow outside.
12:15I switched off my first light immediately.
12:18Darkness followed the room.
12:20The footstep continued.
12:22One.
12:23Two.
12:23Three.
12:24Crossing the roof.
12:27Then stopping directly above me.
12:29Silence followed.
12:30A full minute passed.
12:32Then another.
12:33Finally the footstep resumed.
12:36Moving away into the forest.
12:38Only then did I breathe again.
12:40I returned to the radio station before sunset.
12:43The entire walk back I felt washed.
12:47Several times I stopped suddenly and looked behind me.
12:50Nothing.
12:51Only trees is snow.
12:52Darkness gathering between the tongues.
12:54Yet the feeling persisted.
12:57The sensation that someone remained just beyond sight.
13:01Following.
13:02Matching my pace.
13:04Waiting.
13:05That night I reviewed the bunker documents again.
13:09Most of the material seemed incomplete.
13:12Large sections had been removed.
13:14Entire pages were missing.
13:16Almost as if someone had deliberated.
13:18Erased most important details.
13:23Around midnight another transmission arrived.
13:26This time the voice belonged to a woman.
13:28Crying.
13:30Whispering.
13:31Barely audible beneath the aesthetics.
13:34I found the tower.
13:36Silence.
13:36Then I thought I was alone.
13:39A pulse.
13:40Heavy breathing.
13:41Then a sentence that made my blood run cold.
13:46Something keeps answering me from the trees.
13:49The transmission ended.
13:51A few minutes later another voice appeared.
13:54A different person.
13:55A different ear.
13:57A different story.
13:58Yet the same fear.
14:00The same panic.
14:01The same ending.
14:04By two in the morning I had heard six separate transmissions.
14:08Six different people.
14:10All lost.
14:11All terrified.
14:12All reporting the same thing.
14:15Something in the forest was.
14:16Copping them.
14:17Learning their voices.
14:19Repeating their words.
14:21Following them.
14:22Through the trees.
14:24At exactly 2.13 am everything changed.
14:27The radio activated again.
14:29Estatic filled the room.
14:31Then came a voice I recognized immediately.
14:34My own.
14:36I froze.
14:37Every muscles in my body locked.
14:41Then speaker crackled.
14:43Then I heard myself breathing.
14:45Fast, panic, running.
14:47Branches stepping nearby.
14:49The recording.
14:50Then recording sounded incredibly clear.
14:53Not distorted.
14:55Not distant.
14:56Clear.
14:56As though someone had placed a microphone inches from my face.
15:01Then my voice has spoke.
15:04I can see the lights.
15:06My stone dropped.
15:08I had never said those words.
15:10The transmission continued.
15:12Don't go into the forest.
15:14Estatic searched.
15:16Briefly.
15:17Then.
15:19If you are hearing this.
15:21It is already too late.
15:22I stayed at the radio in disbelief.
15:25The voice sounded exactly like mine.
15:28Every detail.
15:29Every inflection.
15:30Perfect.
15:31Then came the final sentence.
15:33The sentence that will wakes me up some nights.
15:37My voice whispered.
15:39Whatever answer the radio is not human.
15:42The transmission ended.
15:45Silence returned.
15:45And for several moments I simply sat there.
15:52Unable to move.
15:53Unable to think.
15:55Because deep down I knew one thing.
15:57There was not a recording.
15:59It was a warning for me.
16:01But not from my version of me.
16:04That had existed yet.
16:06I didn't sleep at all.
16:08At dawn I made a decision.
16:10I was sleeping.
16:12The inspection could wait.
16:14The report could wait.
16:16Whatever was happening in that forest was not worth understanding.
16:19I packed my equipment quickly.
16:22Prepared the emergency.
16:24Satellite to be gone.
16:26And stepped outside.
16:28Then I saw the footprints.
16:30Fresh tracks covered the snow around the building.
16:33Hundreds of them perhaps thousand.
16:35Far more than before.
16:37They surrounded the station completely.
16:40Some belonged to boots.
16:41Others to bare feet.
16:43Some looked human.
16:45Others did not.
16:47The shapes were wrong.
16:50The proportion impossible.
16:52As the something had attempted to imitate human footprints without fully understanding how feet worked.
16:59I followed one trial with my eyes.
17:02It led toward the forest.
17:04Toward the clearing.
17:05Toward the hidden towers.
17:07Then I noticed something else.
17:09What's written in the snow.
17:11A single sentence.
17:14Stretching across the killer ring outside the station.
17:18The letters looked as though they had been carved by dozens of different hands.
17:23Some large, some small, some barely eligible.
17:27Yet together they formed a message.
17:29A message directed at me.
17:31It read,
17:42The sound of the forest.
17:55The sound of the trees.
17:57The sound of the trees.
17:57The sound of the trees.
18:01behind me, sometimes directly ahead. Like dozens of radios are broadcasting the same transmission simultaneously.
18:10I stood frozen outside the station. The cold air burned my lungs. The forest remained motionless.
18:17Yet my voice continued calling, patiently, almost gently, as if it warned me to follow it.
18:27And eventually, against every instinct I had, I did. The signal led me back toward the hidden clearing.
18:35Snow fell steadily through the darkness. The radio voices guided me deeper into the wilderness.
18:43Every few minutes another transmission joined it. Different voices, men, women, children, all speaking at once.
18:51Fragments of conversation, panic, warnings, prayers. Desperate police for help.
18:57The voices were left until they became impossible to separate. A wall of human fear drifting through the trees.
19:03Then suddenly everything stopped. The silence was immediate absolute.
19:08I emerged into the clearing, and my heart nearly stopped. Every tower was active.
19:15Red warning lights blinked across the forest. Dozens of towers, maybe hundreds. The entire clearing pulsed, synchronized flashes.
19:24Power cables vibrated beneath the snow. A low hum filled the air. The sound felt less like machinery and more
19:32like breathing.
19:32Slow, slow, rhythmic, alive. At the center of the clearing stood something I had not noticed before.
19:40A much larger tower, hidden by darkness during my first visit.
19:46It rose above all the others, at least 600 feet tall. Perhaps more. Its upper section disappeared into the snowfall.
19:57The structure looked wrong. Not Soviet, not modern, not anything I recognized.
20:03The metal seemed unusually smooth, almost organic. As if it had grown. As if it had grown rather than been
20:16built.
20:21And every cable in the clearing connected to it. A narrow part led toward the base. As I approached, the
20:30radio clip to my jacket activated.
20:32A static erupted from the speaker. Then a voice emerged. The same man from the first transmission. The one who
20:43disappeared in 1997.
20:45His breathing surrounded. His breathing sounded fanatic, terrified. Don't go near it.
20:52A static crackled. Then another voice interrupted. A woman. I thought it was a rescue beacon. Another interruption. A child.
21:00Its learning.
21:02Then dozen more voices spoke simultaneously. All overlapping. All disparate. The same warning repeated through the chows. Don't let it
21:10hear you.
21:12The base of the tower contained an entrance. A steel door stood partially open. Warm air drifted from inside. Warm.
21:22In the middle of a Siberian winter.
21:24I should have turned around. Instead, I entered the corridor beyond descended underground. The deeper I went, the warmer the
21:33air became.
21:33Soon the temperature felt almost comfortable and possible. Not abundant facility should have had power. No facility should have survived
21:42this long. Yet somewhere beneath the forest, something was still operating. Something enormous.
21:49The staircase eventually opened into a chamber unlike anything I had ever seen. I still struggled to describe it. The
21:58room was not filled with machinery. At least not normal machinery.
22:01Thousands of cables descended from the ceiling. Bundles of wire stretched across the walls. Yet they were not connected to
22:11computers. They disappeared into something far stranger. A massive central structure. Dark, towering, pulsing family. Faintly. At first I thought
22:21it was a metal. Then I realized it was not. It moved very slightly. Lagged muscles beneath the skin. My
22:28fleshlight trembled in my hand.
22:30The structure had extended upward beyond sight. Connected directly to the tower above. Connected to every tower in the forest.
22:39And embedded throughout its surface were speakers. Thousands of them. Old speakers. New speakers. Military radios. Civilian radios.
22:48Communication devices. Communication devices from different decades. Different countries. Different areas. All wired into the same thing. All listening. All
22:57transmitting. The radio on my jacket activated again. This time the voice was mine. Calm. Steady. Not frightened.
23:05Now you understand. Now you understand. I stared at the speaker. My mouth had gone completely dry. What is this?
23:14I whispered. For several seconds only static and said. Then my voice returned. It is not receiving signal. A pause.
23:23It is collecting them.
23:24The words occurred through the chamber. Collecting. Not receiving. Collecting. Then I understood. The missing people. The voices. The warning.
23:33The transmissions.
23:33The tower was not communicating across distance. It was communicating across time. A sudden moment drew my attention. Shapes emerged
23:43from the darkness surrounding the chamber. Human figures. Dozens of them. Standing silently among the cables. At first I thought
23:52they were workers. Then my fleshlight illuminated their face. Moisture dropped.
23:57The faces matched photographs from the missing person reports. The man from 1997. The woman from 2003. A hunter who
24:07vanished in 2011. Others. Many others. All standing perfectly still. Their eyes remained open. Yet none of them seemed fully
24:17awake or fully alive. Something had been preserved. Recorded. Copy. It stored. I don't know the correct word.
24:24Only that they looked wrong. Only that they looked wrong. Like radio transmission wearing human bodies. The nearest figure suddenly
24:31turned toward me. Then another. And another. Within seconds every face in the chamber was looking directly at me.
24:40The radio exploded with voices. Hundreds of voices. Thousands. All speaking simultaneously. The sound was unbearable. The chamber trembled. The
24:51great structural pulse faster.
24:53The speaker screamed. The speaker screamed. And amid the jaws. One sentence immaculately. Not from the radio. From the root
25:02cell itself. A voice impossible to locate. A voice made from every other voice. It asked. Will you stay?
25:10The question echoed. The question echoed through the darkness. Again. And again. And again. And again. Will you stay?
25:16The figure. The figure began moving toward me slowly. Not threatening. Not aggressive. Almost hopeful. As though they wanted me
25:25answer. As though they had been waiting. For years. For decades. Perhaps longer.
25:30I ran. I ran. The memory became fragmented of the dead. Stairs. Snow. Darkness. The forest. Branches staring at my
25:40applause. The endless sound of the voices behind me.
25:43I ran. I ran. I ran. Until my lungs burned. Until my legs gave out. Until the first light of
25:49the dawn. Appeared through the trees. Then everything went black.
25:53I woke up in a hospital. Three days later. A rescue helicopter had found me wandering nearly. Twenty miles from
26:01the tower. Hypothermic. Disoriented. Unable to explain where I had been.
26:08When authorities investigated the site. They found nothing. No hidden clearing. No underground bunker. No additional towers. Only the abandoned
26:18Soviet station.
26:19Exactly as it appeared on the official map. The rest was gone. As though it had never existed.
26:26I resigned from my position. Six months later. Moved to another city.
26:31It started over. For years. I avoided radios entirely. No scanners. No broadcast. Nothing. Eventually life became normal again. Or
26:41at least normal enough.
26:43Then last winter. Something happened. I was driving home. During a snowstorm. A local radio station was playing music. Ordinary
26:51music. Nothing unusual. Without warning. The signal cut out.
26:56Static filled the car. Then a voice emerged. My voice. Older than before. Tired. Defeated. And speaking from somewhere far
27:05away. The transmission lasted only four seconds. Just long enough for me. To hear one sentence. One final warning. A
27:13warning I still I don't understand. The voice said. Don't answer when they called back.
27:19Then the music returned. Then the music returned. As if nothing had happened. That was fourteen months ago. Since then.
27:26I have occasionally noticed strange interferences on radio. Television. Emergency broadcast. Airport announcement.
27:34The interruption never lasts more than a second or two. Most people don't notice. But I do.
27:39Because hidden beneath the aesthetics. I can hear voices. Thousands of them. Whispering. Calling. Repeating names. Sometimes names from missing
27:50person reports. Sometimes names from news stories. Sometimes names I have never heard before. And recently. I have started hearing
28:00one name more than any other. My own. Last week I bought a new radio. I don't know why. Curiosity.
28:07Maybe fear. Heavy. I turned it on. I turned it on. I turned it on.
28:09At exactly 2.13. In the morning. The frequency was empty. Only static. For nearly a minute. Nothing happened. Then
28:18a voice image. Weak. Distant panning. Breathing hard. Running through trees. The same way. The first transmission began years ago.
28:28Only this time I recognized the voice immediately. It was me. And just before the signal disappeared. I heard myself
28:35say. Can anyone hear me?
28:38Then transmission ended there. But I already knew what came next. Because I have heard that recording before. It was
28:47the very first voice that led me to the tower. The voice of the dead man. The voice I thought
28:52belonged to someone who vanished in 1997. I was wrong. The voice had always belonged to me.
29:00And somewhere. And somewhere. And somewhere out there. Beyond the aesthetics. Beyond the forest. Beyond whatever project you go away.
29:07And something is still listening.
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